media amnesia

[spanone]

march 1, 2011


Senate Passes Resolution Calling for No-Fly Zone Over Libya

The Senate unanimously approved a nonbinding resolution on Tuesday calling for the United Nations Security Council to impose a no-fly zone over Libya and urged Libyan leader Muammar el-Qaddafi to resign and allow a peaceful transition to democracy.

The resolution, offered by Sens. Robert Menendez, D-N.J., and Mark Kirk, R-Ill., has no force of law. And its symbolic impact on U.S. posture toward Libya is uncertain. But the resolution puts the full Senate on record behind an aggressive posture and could bolster a growing number of calls for the United States—which has already sent warships carrying hundreds of Marines into the region—or its allies to take limited military steps in support of Libyans seeking to overthrow Qaddafi. Earlier on Tuesday, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told lawmakers that all options to address the Libyan crisis are on the table.

“There is a bipartisan consensus building to provide assistance to liberated areas of Libya and to work with our allies to enforce a no-fly zone," Kirk said in a statement.

The resolution condemns "gross and systematic violations of human rights, including violent attacks on protesters demanding democratic reforms," by Qaddafi and urges him to "ensure civilian safety" and "guarantee access to human rights and humanitarian organizations." It also applauds a move by the U.N. Human Rights Council to recommend Libya's suspension from the council and calls for the U.N. General Assembly to vote in support of that step.

http://nationaljournal.com/congress/senate-passes-resolution-calling-for-no-fly-zone-over-libya-20110301?page=1

[Turborama]

1. K&R n/t

[handmade34]

2. thank you!

[gratuitous]

3. *Sigh*

Let's go over it once again: The Senate passes lots and lots of non-binding resolutions that do not have the force of law. They pass unanimously because someone mutters the magical incantation, "I request unanimous consent to revise and extend my remarks" when they introduce such a resolution. The resolutions aren't printed up beforehand, they aren't debated, and when nobody objects to them, the resolving Senator or Senators can then write whatever they want and insert it into the Congressional Record. It passes "unanimously" by dint of the Senators who might happen to be in the chamber at the time of its introduction. To claim that a non-binding Senate Resolution has any power, formality or force is to accord it far more dignity than the shambling legislative mayhem that brought it into being.

Folks pretending otherwise are either not knowledgeable about Senate procedure, or are hoping that the people they talk to are ignorant of Senate procedure.

[spanone]

4. no such thing was claimed

this posting has nothing to do with the procedures or power of a resolution. it only points out that congress was for it before they were against it.

[gratuitous]

5. It points out no such thing

A non-binding resolution, even one that is "unanimously adopted" doesn't represent anything, except perhaps the wishes of the sponsor(s). The process of introducing a non-binding resolution, as I pointed out above, is as useful as a lie detector test in determining anything. There's a reason polygraphs aren't admissible as evidence, and there's a reason no one should rely on a non-binding resolution as an indicator of who is for or against anything.